


Sound Advice

by QueenOfRohirrim



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Brotherly Affection, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:21:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22997596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfRohirrim/pseuds/QueenOfRohirrim
Summary: At last, Stannis thinks he understands Robert a bit more, and he wants to help his brother.
Relationships: Robert Baratheon & Stannis Baratheon, Robert Baratheon/Ned Stark
Kudos: 49





	Sound Advice

Stannis awoke suddenly in the night when the creaking of his bedroom door slowly opening made its way into his ear.

He opened one eye, let it settle upon the blurry outline of his older brother’s face in the dark, and then shut it again.

“If you’ve come to strangle me, make it quick.” He muttered with a long sigh. 

“I don’t want to kill you.” Robert answered. His tone seemed to speak to the truth of the statement. He didn’t sound angry anymore.

“If you don’t want to kill me...” Stannis groaned. “Why on earth are you sneaking into my bedroom at three in the morning?”

“I don’t know...”

Stannis would have scoffed at the answer if he were properly awake.

“Then go away.” He told Robert. “I’m tired.”

“Dammit Stannis! Can’t you just listen for a moment?” Robert snapped at him.

Normally that would have been the point where Stannis would have just gotten up and shoved him out the door. However, something didn’t seem right with Robert tonight. He sounded quite saddened. 

Stannis even thought he might have picked up the tiniest hint of a sob in his brother’s plea.

So he opened his eyes again, and he sat up in bed to look at Robert.

“Fine.” He agreed, blinking the sleep from his eyes as best he could. “You have my attention. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

Once his vision cleared, he could see that he hadn’t imagined the remnants of a choked out sob slipping from his brother’s throat. 

Robert’s face was stained with tears.

“Don’t you see?” He said to Stannis, sounding more defeated than he ever had been before. “You’re right. I can deny it all I want, but that doesn’t make anything different.”

“You’re telling me something I already know.” Stannis hummed. “I thought we’d established all of this earlier.”

“But you don’t understand!” Robert insisted. “And neither do I! That’s the worst of it.”

He sat down on the end of Stannis’ bed and ran a hand over his tortured looking face.

“Explain.” Stannis advised him. 

“I don’t know how.” Robert admitted.

“Then I can’t help you.” Stannis sighed. “If you want me to help you, you have to tell me what’s going on.”

“I just...I like women, Stannis. I always have.” 

The younger nodded slowly, glad to at least be getting something out of Robert, even if it was only something he’d already been told a thousand times.

“I know.” He assured his brother anyway. Now wasn’t exactly the time for their usual cruelty and snide remarks. “You can like both, Robert. That’s not uncommon.”

“No, you don’t understand, Stannis! I don’t like both!” 

Stannis rolled his eyes. So much for actually getting somewhere with this issue this time around.

“If you’re going to lie to me...” He began to say.

“I’m not lying!” Robert cut him off. “I know you think I am but I’m not! I don’t like other men and I never have...It’s just Ned.”

That didn’t sound unusual at all. 

Of course Stannis didn’t know for certain how long Robert had been repressing these hidden truths about his sexuality but he assumed it had been quite awhile.

“I think maybe you’ve just never allowed yourself to believe that you find other men attractive too.” He suggested gently.

“Then why do I allow it with Ned?” Robert questioned him again, as if Stannis held every answer to anything he wanted to know.

Obviously that wasn’t the case, and so he had to stop and think on the matter for awhile. 

Robert had always been close with Ned Stark. For as long as Stannis could remember they had been the best of friends, and that was going back to when he was only a small child.

It was an odd thing, for his brother to enjoy the company of someone who differed so drastically from himself.

Robert’s other friends were all the same person, just in separate bodies, but not Ned.

Ned Stark was always well behaved, morally grounded, and in total control of any less than noble impulses that might have lurked within him.

Robert was the exact opposite, of course, and really now that Stannis thought about it the two were quite complimentary to one another. They completed each other...filled in the gaps where the other was lacking.

Suddenly Stannis understood, and he looked at his brother with all the pity he could manage to conjure.

“You poor fool.” He muttered. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

Robert’s breath caught in his chest. He’d never allowed that thought to cross completely through his mind, and hearing Stannis speak those words out loud, forcing him to acknowledge the truth that he’d been running from for so long...It was just too much.

He couldn’t stop the tears from flowing or the sobs that came up from the very pit of his breast. 

Stannis didn’t know what to do now. 

Renly cried. He cried all the time. It was almost second nature to him now, how to comfort his little brother.

However, Robert didn’t cry. 

Whether he just refused to or just never had reason enough to want to, Stannis wasn’t sure. Though, he assumed the former, given the current situation they were in.

“How long?” He asked his brother before thinking better of it. He didn’t know how else to react.

Robert seemed to realize suddenly that he’d just broken into a fit of tears in front of Stannis, and upon hearing the other’s voice he began to wipe furiously at his eyes, grunting as he swallowed the sobs left behind in his throat.

“I don’t remember.” He said honestly. “I can’t remember when it started. I just know it never stopped.”

“So tell him.” Stannis sighed. “Obviously he feels the same. I’ve never known the honorable Eddard Stark to fuck someone out of pure lust. Have you?”

“I can’t tell him, Stannis! Have you lost your mind!?” Robert turned on him. “Think of what that would mean!”

“What are you going to do then, Robert?” Stannis shook his head at his brother. “Are you going to marry some girl you don’t like and be miserable for the rest of your life? Or would you rather live and die alone? Those are your alternatives. Take your pick.”

Robert was quiet for awhile and Stannis sat silently, patiently waiting for the next excuse.

“I want to be with him.” Robert forced himself to utter after a few more moments of deep thought. 

Stannis was surprised but he was also relieved. That was quite a leap from complete denial.

“Good.” He nodded to his brother. “Be with him then.”

“But I can’t, Stannis...” 

And of course, he should have seen the excuses coming back for one last battle.

“Robert, I don’t know who you think will care if you’re sleeping with a man or a woman, but I do know that you’re wrong to think the way you have been. The world has changed since our father died, you know.”

“I didn’t say anything about our Father.” Robert stiffened defensively.

“You didn’t have to.” Stannis huffed. “I remember him well enough. I remember his views on men lying with men.”

Robert stood quickly then and moved to leave the room.

“I’ve taken enough of your time.” He muttered as he went. “Goodnight, Stannis.”

The younger Baratheon sighed and sat for a moment longer before he laid down to go back to sleep.

He’d said what all he could think to say. If Robert didn’t want to listen, that was his own problem.

.....

“Good morning.” 

Stannis jumped and cursed louder than he had in a long time, spilling his coffee over the kitchen counter as he was startled by the unexpected house guest behind him.

“What on earth are you trying to do, Ned Stark?” He growled at the other man, proceeding to grab a dish cloth from the cupboard to wipe up the mess he’d made. “You could’ve given me a bloody heart attack...”

“Sorry.” Ned smiled softly at him. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Stannis sighed as he wiped up the spill on the counter, his back still turned to Ned.

“May I ask what exactly you’re doing here at such an early hour?” He inquired. 

“I spent the night.” Ned informed him.

Stannis turned his head and the giddy fool was still smiling at him.

“I knew you’d be up early and I wanted to say thank you.” He told Stannis then. 

“For what?” Stannis questioned him. “I didn’t do anything for you.”

“No.” Ned admitted. “But Robert told me what you said last night. How you told him to tell me the truth. All of the truth.”

Stannis felt a sudden weight lifted off of his heart.

“Like I said before...” He muttered, trying his very best to seem indifferent and cold. “I didn’t do anything for you.”


End file.
